Though a familiar name to videogame fans who remember the 80s and early 90s, Japanese developer SUNSOFT have not been seen much outside Asia in the past few years. As part of the company’s celebrations of its 40th Year of operation, the company is returning to Europe and North America with the upcoming release of its virtual reality (VR) title Dark Eclipse.
Dark Eclipse is due to be released on PlayStation VR globally on 25th September, 2018 where it will be available as a free-to-play title compatible with both DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move controllers.
The developers have aimed to bring the core elements of a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) while offering a new twist on some of the typical conventions of the genre. Dark Eclipse is described as a fast-paced, one-on-one battle where players need to overcome an opponent’s team of three’ leaders’ which are chosen from a roster of 15 available characters.
As expected of a MOBA, each character has its own mix of skills and abilities and will also have access to supporting ‘soldiers’ that can be ordered to attack by the player. Gameplay will involve what SUNSOFT believes is an intuitive drag-and-drop control system which combines real-time strategy (RTS) mechanics with the action of a MOBA.
“With 40-years in the business, we’ve seen many gaming trends come and go, but few have been as exhilarating as VR’s expansion and mainstream acceptance,” said Shohei Sakakibara, Producer and Project Leader at SUNSOFT. “Everyone at SUNSOFT is enamored with this type of quick, strategic, multiplayer gameplay, so we brought our passion for the genre and combined the best characteristics of VR, MOBAs and RTS games into Dark Eclipse, a game that’s both familiar and eye-catchingly innovative.”
SUNSOFT are planning on introducing regular, free updates to the title, which will add new Leader characters and regularly re-tuning the gameplay balance. For future coverage of Dark Eclipse and other upcoming VR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.